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The Lucid Dreaming Techniques

Chapter Five - Lucid Dreaming Techniques. Learn how to wake yourself up inside your dreams and dream consciously. These initial tips are universal to most of the methods that follow.

Waking Up and Getting To Sleep

Firstly, practice waking yourself up and then to going back to sleep just 10–60 minutes later. Probably the easiest method is a fairly quiet alarm clock. You can put it on the other side of the room to force you up. However, you could also use the MILD lucid dreaming technique (see below) to try and wake yourself up immediately after your dreams. This should also help with your dream recall. You might want to drink lots of water or some tea, which is a diuretic (makes you go to the toilet). However, you might just wake up in the morning feeling very uncomfortable! Also note that the diuretic effects of tea come from caffeine, which may affect your ability to sleep.

If you have trouble getting to sleep in the first place, don't drink water for about an hour before you think you'll turn your lights off. In fact, do drink water an hour before, to stop you from getting thirsty later on. Avoid caffeine and sugar before bed.

If it still takes too long for you to fall asleep, you can take advantage of this by reading books about lucid dreaming techniques before going to sleep. This could greatly increase your chances of getting a lucid dream. You definitely need a light next to your bed to read until you're too sleepy to carry on, as getting up to turn the light off can often wake you up fully.

Reality Checks

A great example of checking reality is shown in the Lucid Dream movie calledWAKING LIFE. It is an animated feature movie in which Wiley Wiggins floats in and out of a series of philosophical discussions and ethereal experiences.

Eventually we learn that Wiley is lucid dreaming throughout the film, and is trying to learn to control his dreams. He uses the reality check of turning the light switch on and off as shown below. This is how Wiley Wiggins realizes he is lucid dreaming. It’s a must see movie if you are into lucid dreaming.

Reality checks are a method of discerning between dreams and reality. It is extremely important to perform these.

One could say this is a key element of your lucid dreaming techniques. It is also extremely important to make sure that you expect these to produce dream results — you accept your reality, even when it is a dream. It would be counterproductive to expect real-life results in a dream, as the outcome of a reality check can be modified by the placebo effect. It won't affect outcomes in real-life (unless you are mentally ill!), but you will probably have a higher success rate in dreams.

So here are some reality checks to use with your lucid dreaming techniques. Be familiar with the entire list even if you only use a few.

(Note: Viewing chart below on your phone? Turn phone horizontal)

Reliability

Speed

Discreetness

Overall

Breathing

Can you breathe through a tightly shut nose?

5

5

3

4.34

Jumping

When you jump, do you float back down?

5

5

1

3.67

Reading

Do sentences change when you read them? Read, turn away and repeat it to yourself, and then turn back and read it again. Do this twice.

5

4

4

4.34

Light switches

Does a light switch work?

5

3

1

3

Vision

Do you have perfect vision? This only works for people who have at least slightly blurry vision in the waking world.

4

5

5

4.67

Hands

Are your hands a strange color have too many fingers (sometimes they disappear and reappear when you try to count them!) or have other abnormalities? Can you push your finger through your other hand?

4

5

5

4.67

Time

Does your watch or clock tell a reasonable time? Are you even able to read the time off it? Sometimes clocks have the wrong number of hands or have strange symbols. Note: Digital clocks often work better for this reality check.

4

5

4

4.34

Powers

Are you able to fly (just visualize it), unlock doors or have other magical powers? Try to walk through a wall, window or mirror.

4

5

3

4

Mirrors

Do you look normal in a mirror?

3

3

3

3

Nose

Can you see your nose with one eye closed?

2

5

5

4

Memory

Are you able to remember how you got here, why you are here and what happened an hour ago? This is not always a reliable reality check!

2

3

5

3.34

Whatever lucid dreaming techniques you use always choose a few reality checks which you will do regularly. Keep doing reality checks until you are convinced that you aren't dreaming. You should always carry out more than one reality check. If you find that it is not a dream, look around you and think of what would be different if it was a dream. If you do this it will make it more likely that you will do a reality check in a dream.

Apart from doing reality checks throughout the day, you also need to do a reality check immediately after you wake up. This helps you become lucid in false awakenings, when you begin to act out the following day in a dream.

If you have trouble bringing reality checks into your dreams then before going to bed imagine yourself in a dream, noticing odd details and doing a reality check. Then do a reality check in real life. If you do this a few times before bed you will find that you will do it more often in dreams.

If you are in a situation where you cannot do a reality check, such as at a public speaking, try to do one as soon as possible. You can do some reality checks very discreetly, such as feeling your fingers to make sure you have five. If you start to say “well, I can't do a reality check now” you should not be surprised when you make this mistake in a dream!

Which Reality Checks Are Best?

When selecting reality checks, the most important properties of a reality check are reliability, speed, and discreetness.

The reliability of each reality check is how likely you are to recognize the dream sign’s results as showing that you are dreaming once you do them in a dream. It changes for each person and their preferred lucid dreaming techniques, but some reality checks are overall more accurate than others. The figures in the table above are rough only and differ for each person.

It is important for a reality check to be fast. It wastes dream time if you have to search around for a book or (perhaps worse) a mirror. Plus, it could also give your subconscious more time to produce real-life results, especially if you believe that the check will give real-life results. Last of all, a reality check should be discreet; that is, it should not draw too much attention to you when you do it in the waking world. Suddenly jumping in the air or trying to walk through a wall as a reality check could cause much embarrassment!

On the table above, these are scored out of 5.

I Have Trouble Remembering To Do Reality Checks Throughout The Day. What Reminders Can I Use?

You are lucky to have an interesting day and forget about lucid dreaming! It isn't advisable to explicitly write “reality check” or “lucid” on your hand, as this could create an overdependence on this reminder, which may not exist in a dream. However, you might want to just draw a dot or small circle on your hand. This should be enough to remind you to do a reality check.

Another lucid dreaming technique is to write down three things you do regularly in a day. Examples include hearing your name, going through a doorway, turning on a TV, beginning to read a book, and seeing a stranger. In the morning, choose three such events and intend to do a reality check whenever they happen in the following day.

I Did A Reality Check In A Dream But It Said That I Was Not Dreaming. What Went Wrong?

Some reality checks work perfectly for some people and awfully for others. These are mostly the light switches one and the hands one. If you find that the light switch works or that your hands are perfectly normal, you need to choose different lucid dreaming techniques.

I Did A Reality Check in A Dream But I Didn't Quite Realize I Was Dreaming. What Went Wrong?

An example of this is looking into a mirror and seeing some huge boils or a grey mist on your reflection and not realising that you are dreaming. This is rare if you actually intended to look into the mirror as a reality check. You need to be more careful when doing your reality checks in real life or pick more reliable reality checks which show more obviously that you are dreaming. Also try to pick reality checks that are easy to do. For example, don't pick the Time RC (Reality Check) if you never wear a watch, and don't pick the Mirror RC if you hardly look in the mirror or you know that you won't find a mirror in your dream.

The Lucid Dreaming Techniques

When you read through these lucid dreaming techniques, remember that different lucid dreaming techniques work for different people. There is no “best lucid dreaming technique” and most lucid dreaming techniques could be used to have 2–5 lucid dreams every night!

However, you will probably want some advice as to which lucid dreaming technique you should try first. A major choice is whether you want to use a method which starts from a dream or a method which starts from being awake. *If you master a lucid dreaming technique which starts from being awake, you are able to have lucid dreams wherever you can sleep. For other lucid dreaming techniques, you have to rely on your luck to give you lucid dreams after you have done your lucid dreaming technique. Here are some advantages and disadvantages for specific lucid dreaming techniques:

Technique

Summary

Advantages

Disadvantages

Best for...

WBTB

(Wake-Back-To-Bed)

Wake after some sleep and then return to bed.

Simple

Can be very reliable, especially when used with other techniques

Disrupts sleep cycle

People who want to strengthen other techniques, or who wake up in the middle of the night anyway.

Auto-suggestion

Let yourself genuinely believe that you'll become lucid—without intending to become lucid—so that you really will.

Simple

Less effective than some other techniques (such as MILD)

People who are highly susceptible to hypnosis or who don't have the energy for other techniques.

MILD

(Mnemonic Induction of Lucid Dreams)

Fall asleep while focused on your intention to remember that you're dreaming.

Simple

Can be boring

People with a good prospective memory (remembrance of future intentions).

WILD

(Wake-Initiation of Lucid Dreams)

Keep your consciousness while falling asleep and go straight into a dream.

Lets you truly induce lucid dreams at will

Can cause frightening experiences

Can take long to master

People who want to reliably have lucid dreams.

VILD

(Visual Induction of Lucid Dreams)

By repetitive visualisation, incubate a dream in which you do a reality check.

Also lets you induce lucid dreams at will

Works extremely well for some people...

...but not very well for others

Visualizing can keep you awake

People who have good visualisation skills.

CAT

(Cycle Adjustment Technique)

Adjust your sleep cycle to encourage awareness during the latter part of your sleep.

You're only likely to get a lucid dream on every other day (though this could easily be more frequently than with other techniques)

People who have a very regular sleep cycle.

Remember, it'll help a lot to have your recall up to at least one dream a night before attempting these lucid dreaming techniques.

*The usual acronyms in forums for this are DILD (Dream-Initiated Lucid Dream) and WILD (Wake-Initiated Lucid Dream). All the lucid dreaming techniques that induce WILDs are described under WILD on this page.

WBTB This technique has been successful in scientific research and/or is part of a commercial book about lucid dreaming.

WBTB stands for “Wake-Back-To-Bed”.

Wake yourself up after 4 to 6 hours of sleep, get out of bed and stay up for anywhere between a few minutes to an hour before going back to bed. It's preferable that you do something related to lucid dreaming during this time (such as reading about lucid dreaming techniques), but it is not required. This is best combined with other lucid dreaming techniques; many people have amazing results with a MILD/WBTB combination.

The WBTB lucid dreaming technique significantly increases your chance of a lucid dream, and using MILD (see below) in conjunction with it puts you at good odds if you're planning to sleep an hour or more after your WBTB session. However, you might need plenty of sleep time and therefore you may only be able to use it at weekends.

I Am Sometimes Awake For Very Short Times, But Cannot Pull Myself Together Enough To Get Up And Out Of Bed. What Can I Do?

Put a bright piece of paper on the wall or ceiling so that you will see it when you wake up. Other stimulus could be a hot water bottle, an alarm clock or a light turned on under your bed. After you get a lucid dream with this lucid dreaming technique, you'll find it easier and easier to get out of bed because you'll have more motivation.

Autosuggestion. This lucid dreaming technique has been successful in scientific research and/or is part of a commercial book about lucid dreaming.

This lucid dreaming technique describes how to use autosuggestion to have lucid dreams. It can be especially effective for people who are highly susceptible to hypnosis, but for most people, MILD will probably be more effective.

As you're falling asleep, suggest to yourself that you will have a lucid dream either that night or in the near future. You can use a mantra (such as “I will recognize that I'm dreaming.”) if you want, but make sure you don't try too hard to get a lucid dream. Instead of putting intentional effort into the suggestion, try to genuinely expect to have a lucid dream. Let yourself think expectantly about the lucid dream you're about to have, but be patient if you don't get one right away.

You could also use autosuggestion to improve dream recall. Just use the lucid dreaming technique, as described above, but instead of suggesting that you'll have a lucid dream, suggest that you'll remember your dreams when you wake up. You could also use a mantra with this, such as “When I wake up, I will remember what I dreamt.” Just be careful not to put too much intentional effort into the mantra — try to genuinely expect to remember your dreams instead.

MILD

MILD stands for “Mnemonic Induction of Lucid Dreams", or sometimes, “Mnemonically Induced Lucid Dream". The MILD lucid dreaming technique was developed by Stephen LaBerge, and is described fully in his book Exploring the World of Lucid Dreaming.

With the MILD lucid dreaming technique, as you're falling asleep, you concentrate on your intention to remember to recognize that you're dreaming. Repeat a short mantra in your head, such as “Next time I'm dreaming, I will remember I'm dreaming.” Think about what this means (i.e., that you want to remember that you're dreaming—in the same way you might go to a grocery store and suddenly remember that you need bread), and imagine that you're back in a dream you've had recently, but this time you recognize that you're dreaming. For example, imagine yourself flying and realizing that it's a dream because you're flying. Keep repeating and visualizing the mantra until you're sure that your intention is set in your mind or you fall asleep. If you stop repeating and visualizing the mantra, then still try to make sure the last thing in your mind before falling asleep is your intention to remember to recognize that you're dreaming.

In general the MILD lucid dreaming technique can be practiced when you first go to bed at night, or after you have awakened from a dream during the night. If you practice the MILD lucid dreaming technique after you have awakened from a dream during the night you should first run through the dream you have awakened from in your mind to ensure that you remember it. You may find it helpful to jot down a few notes about your dream in your dream journal.

Once you have committed the dream to memory, go back to sleep following the steps above, except this time visualize the dream you just had. Run through the dream until you encounter a dream sign that you originally missed. Now instead of missing the dream sign in your visualizations recognize the dream sign and become “lucid”.

Repeat these steps until you have fallen asleep, hopefully you will find that you have re-entered the dream that you just had and will recognize the dream sign you marked earlier and become lucid.

WILD

This lucid dreaming technique has been successful in scientific research and/or is part of a commercial book about lucid dreaming.

WILD stands for “Wake-Initiated Lucid Dream”, or “Wake-Initiation of Lucid Dreams” to refer to any lucid dreaming techniques that involve falling asleep consciously. These lucid dreaming techniques are similar to self-hypnosis. Some people believe that WILDs are not actual dreams, but are instead astral projection. Various detailed resources are available under that subject.

For most people, they are far easier to induce in the early morning after waking up or in afternoon naps, as the sleep cycle will continue with an REM period. Once you are experienced with inducing WILDs, you can try to induce them at other times.

For WILDs to occur, it is best for your body to be completely relaxed. When you go back to bed, lie down comfortably. Now tense and relax your body, starting from your shoulders and working downwards, then back up to the face. This (or similar relaxation, meditation, or trance techniques) should make your body feel slightly heavy and relaxed.

There are many different ways to induce WILDs, but they all involve doing something to keep the mind awake as the body falls asleep. A few lucid dreaming techniques are detailed below.

If you pay attention to your physical body while using these lucid dreaming techniques, you will likely enter sleep paralysis (which usually happens after you're already asleep) without losing conscious awareness of your body. You will get a tingling and buzzing sensation (this might be unpleasant). These sensations might be so strong that you feel that you will die (e.g., you might feel a choking sensation), but don't worry, this is perfectly safe! Sometimes you can simply wait until you fall asleep straight into a lucid dream.

However, if you don't fall asleep, and you become completely paralysed (with the exception of your eyes), don't try to move. Imagine your dream hand (or spirit hand if you prefer) going up and leaving your physical hand behind. Now you should have two separate bodies, a dream one and a real one. Control your dream body only — if you control your real one, you will wake up. Now you can try to roll out of bed into your dream world (alternatively, you can get up and walk through a mirror, or sink into your bed).

Hypnagogic Imagery

Try not to think about anything for more than a second or two by constantly switching your attention. This simulates your thinking patterns when you are about to fall asleep. Once you have done this for long enough, the images and sounds begin to take momentum on their own (this is called hypnagogic imagery) and get very strange and illogical. You should enter a dream at about this point and you will probably become lucid quickly. Otherwise, you will eventually realise you have entered sleep paralysis consciously (see above).

Counting

Another lucid dreaming technique is to count up to 100 in your head, optionally adding (for example) an “I'm dreaming” between each number. Alternatively, you can imagine going down stairs, and, on every floor, reading the floor number from 100 down to 0. Try to make this image as vivid as possible — include not only what you see, but also what you hear, feel (touch the banister), and smell. At some point this image should continue into a dream or you will begin to get sleep paralysis as described above

Incubating Dreams

This lucid dreaming technique has been successful in scientific research and/or is part of a commercial book about dreaming.

To incubate a dream about a specific topic, you should first think of a phrase that summarizes that topic (e.g., “I want to go to Atlantis.”). It may help to write the phrase down. If there's something you want to do in the dream, think of a phrase to summarize that too (e.g., “I want to watch Atlantis sink into the ocean.”). If you want to become lucid in the dream, then you should probably write something like “When I dream of [the topic], I will remember that I'm dreaming.” beneath your topic phrase. Immediately go to sleep and focus on your topic phrase. Visualize yourself dreaming about the topic and (if you want to become lucid) realizing that you're dreaming. If there's something specific you want to do in the dream, visualize yourself doing it once you become lucid (not very likely to work if you don't become lucid in the dream). Think about your phrase and topic (and intention to become lucid) as you fall asleep.

Make sure that the last thing in your mind before falling asleep is your intention to (lucidly) dream about the topic you want to dream about. You might want to wake yourself up when the dream starts to fade so that you remember more of the dream; you can do this by ignoring your perception of the dream environment — the opposite of dream stabilization techniques (just make sure you do a reality check when you wake up to make sure you're really awake).

Chaining Dreams

This lucid dreaming technique has been successful in scientific research and/or is part of a commercial book about dreaming.

Dream-chaining or “chaining dreams” is a method to re-enter your dream after you've woken up. It can work for lucid and non-lucid dreams, but you will probably want to enter your dream lucid.

Once you wake up from a dream (if you don't think you were dreaming before you woke up, it may not work well) you should stay still and keep your eyes closed. It doesn't matter if you move a little or open your eyes, it's just that the less movement, sensory stimulation, and less time awake, the better. Ideally, it should feel less like you've woken up, and more like you've taken a 30 second break from dreaming.

Once you're prepared to go back to sleep, close your eyes and either visualize yourself back in your dream, or use the “spinning technique” given in the next chapter to imagine yourself spinning back “into” your dream. Spinning is a little faster than visualization. Be sure to maintain the fact that you are dreaming (unless you don't want to be lucid), or you may lose your lucidity while falling asleep. Stimulate your senses (see the next chapter) as early as possible.

VILD

There have been anecdotes from several people of this working on the ld4all.com forums.

VILD stands for “Visual Induction of Lucid Dreams”, or sometimes, “Visually Induced Lucid Dream”. This lucid dreaming technique has been perfected by Peter Harrison, known as Pedro on the forums at www.ld4all.com/forum/

First, make sure you're relaxed. You can use the relaxing technique mentioned in the description of the WILD technique. You can also imagine your brain emptying out and becoming sleepier. If you have a hard time falling asleep quickly, it should help to read a book (preferably about lucid dreaming techniques) for a while before you go to sleep, until you feel very sleepy.

Now, you need to visualise a dream which you had prepared earlier. Here's an example of a prepared dream:

[I am in a red room with one door. A friend next to me asks me to show them what a reality check is. I do my reality checks (which show that I am dreaming), tell them that I am dreaming, and head towards the door.]

Make sure you know exactly what the dream would be like, such as which friend, the exact words they say, and which reality checks you do. Reality checks that require no props, such as books or clocks, are recommended. Visualise this dream slowly three times, to make sure that you know every detail. Then, start going full-on and visualise the dream over and over. You should visualise the dream as though you are looking through your own eyes, not from a third-person perspective. If you find your thoughts drifting, ignore them and continue to visualise the dream continuously. You will need patience for this — don't just give up if you think it won't work.

When you actually dream this, you will not notice the difference — until you do your reality checks! Continue with the dream as you incubated it (e.g., remember to thank your friend!) before continuing through the door.

“I Tried To Visualise The Dream Until I Fell Asleep, But I Just Stayed Awake. What Went Wrong?”

If visualising keeps you awake, the VILD technique is not the technique for you! You should try different lucid dreaming techniques.

To use this lucid dreaming technique, you need to have a lucid dream in the first place. The idea is to do something in your dream that will help you to become lucid the next time you are dreaming. For example, you could ask a dream character for help — ask them to meet you the next night and tell you that you're dreaming. If it works out the way it should, then the next time you are dreaming, the dream character will walk up to you and tell you that you're dreaming, and so you'll (hopefully) become lucid.

There are many variations on this lucid dreaming technique; you could set up signs in your dream world that remind you to do a reality check. This lucid dreaming technique is not likely to be very effective, but it can work; it relies on the chance that you'll subconsciously induce the reminder (i.e., the dream character or sign or whatever you used) during some later dream, and become lucid because of it.

CAT

There have been anecdotes from many different people of this lucid dreaming technique working.

CAT stands for “Cycle Adjustment Technique”

For one week, go to bed at the same time each night and get up 90 minutes earlier than you usually do. Spend those 90 minutes doing reality checks every 2–5 minutes.

Thereafter, on alternate days: follow the routine from step one, and set the intention to do your reality check routine at its regular time, while getting a full night sleep. This will cause the reality check conditioning to kick in during REM primetime.

Tibetan Methods

Tibetan Buddhists practice what is known as Tibetan dream yoga. Probably the most time consuming way of inducing lucid dreams, it is also, according to the practitioners, the most rewarding of all lucid dreaming techniques. The basic practice is awareness. Awareness should be practiced while sleeping just as well as while being awake. Meditating on the question “who is aware?” might catapult you into a higher degree of awareness. Keeping this level of awareness is another matter. The Tibetans have developed many yogic exercises and disciplines to be practiced.

Maybe the most interesting difference between Tibetan dream yoga and western lucid dreaming techniques is the Tibetan claim of the possibility to be aware during deep sleep, not only in the REM periods of sleep. If you are interested in these methods a good start is to begin to regard all experience as a dream. After all, from the countless multitudes of matter and radiation reaching our senses the nervous system tunes in to only a small fraction of this chaos. If you believe we, more or less, create our own reality in the above sense this practice should feel natural. In general, though, it's recommended to get instructions from a teacher made of flesh and blood rather than consulting the literature or website such as this one.

Other Lucid Dreaming Techniques

There have been no anecdotes found of these lucid dreaming techniques working.

Many of these are combinations of other lucid dreaming techniques with some addition or modification.

Inducing dream signs - You can become lucid by trying to induce specific dream signs to watch for during your dream. You can use autosuggestion (see above) to associate a specific dream sign with doing a reality check, or you can just get used to doing a reality check whenever you encounter the dream sign while awake.

Thirst - Avoid drinking for very long - Wake up later in the night and put salt on your tongue or eat chili to make you even thirstier. Fill a glass of fresh cold water and take it with you back to bed. Hopefully, you'll dream of getting something to drink.

False Awakening - Set your intention as you fall asleep to wake up in the middle of the night. If you're a heavy sleeper, you'll hopefully dream of waking up in the middle of the night. If you're a light sleeper, you're probably more likely to really wake up.

Bladder - Drink huge amounts of water before going to sleep. You should dream of having to go to the bathroom. You may wet your bed!

Chakra - Use Chakra ('third eye') meditation to help you fall asleep. Use with the WBTB technique.

Punishment or Reward - Strictly punish or reward yourself after a dream where you failed to realise you were dreaming or when you do have a lucid dream. This could increase motivation but not necessarily cause lucid dreams in itself.

Lucid Dreaming Techniques with Gadgets

There are various gadgets you can use to become lucid easily. They generally detect when you are in the REM state and then provide a light and/or sound signal. This signal is supposed to be adjusted so that it doesn't wake you up but does enter your dream. The signal is then recognised as showing that you're dreaming, and you become lucid.

One such device is the NovaDreamer , available from The Lucidity Institute . It is available for approximately $400 in the United States or $780 (£440) outside it and comes with supplementary material.

An alternative was the Kvasar at a cost of about $20 in raw materials. But it needed to be constructed by somebody skilled in electronics as it was not sold commercially. It was also hard to operate. The Kvasar website has now been taken down so unless you can find more in future web searches it may no longer be an option.

Lucid Dreaming Techniques with Ayahuasca

Ayahuasca has been used in the Amazon for thousands of years both as a medicine and as a tool for transformation. It is recommended you research Ayahuasca further online and with your doctor or general practitioner and only use with trained Ayahuasca practitioners.

Dream Stabilization

Once you are able to lucidly dream, you may find that it is difficult to stay in the dream; for example, you may wake instantly or the dream may start “fading” which is characterized by loss or degradation of any of the senses, especially visuals.

If you wake immediately after becoming lucid (make sure you do a reality check to be sure you're not still dreaming!), you simply need to continue practising all your lucid dreaming techniques. If you find that you are lucidly dreaming often, it will be less of a shock when you become lucid, and you'll be less likely to wake up.

If your dreams fade out (or “black out”), you should try these methods before your dream starts fading:

Hand Rubbing

Rub your hands together and concentrate on the rubbing. You should feel the friction and the heat of your hands. If you can concentrate on the feelings that this action generates, your dream is likely to stabilize and cause the dream to become more vivid and detailed, along with some other effects. You can also keep one hand on your arm while exploring the dream for a constant sense of stimulation. This technique is most effective when used in conjunction with the “Slowing it down” (lucid dreaming technique below), by staring at your hands while rubbing them together.

Spinning

You spin around in your dream much as you would if you suddenly want to feel dizzy in real life. The sensation of movement is the key here to stabilizing the dream. Although many people report success with this, this lucid dreaming technique is likely to have some side-effects on the dream, such as finding yourself in a totally different scene. For this reason, this lucid dreaming technique is also effective in changing the dream scene. If the dream scene disappears (e.g., becomes black), it is necessary to visualize the dreamscape to return to the dream.

Slowing It Down

Some people like to stabilize the dream by “stopping to smell the roses” and slowly stare at a dream object until it becomes clear. The dreamer would then look around elsewhere, noticing how detailed everything is, thereby stimulating the visual portion of the dream.

False Awakening

A couple of the users on the ld4all.com forums have had success with creating a false awakening to stabilize a dream. If the above lucid dreaming techniques are failing and you find your dream still fading, and you really want to continue your lucid dream, do the following:

Expect to have a false awakening.

When you think you wake up (false or not), perform a reality check.

You will have a false awakening and reality check, and then end up with an even more vivid lucid dream, or will really wake up, perform a reality check, and realize that you just woke up (unfortunately).

The most important part of this is the reality check. This is what will continue your lucid dream. You should be performing reality checks when you wake up. If you plan to induce false awakenings in order to stabilize a dream, the reality check that you perform as you wake up is as important as the one that got you lucid, if not more.

Perform every check in the book until you are positively, absolutely, and completely sure that you aren't dreaming. A series of 10 reality checks are more likely to produce dream results in a dream, especially if you are expecting dream results. Again, this lucid dreaming technique is for those who are desperate!

If you have had a good experience with this lucid dreaming technique, please go to the talk page and post your experiences, as there have not been many anecdotes of it working yet.

If you didn't do any of these, your best option is probably to try to wake up. That way, you will remember more of the dream.

The general rule of dream-stabilization is to stimulate the senses. If you listen for sounds, feel around with your hands, and pay attention to what you see and smell, you will stimulate your senses. The idea here is to load your senses with stimulation from the dream so that your senses cannot shift to the real world. If you close your eyes, you are removing a great deal of sensory information and might wake up. If you hear something loud in real life and are hearing nothing in the dream, your senses may shift to the real world, causing you to wake up.

Recovering From Lost Visuals

There are a few things you can try to do if you lose your visuals. Most of these are less likely to help prolong your dream than the above lucid dreaming techniques.

You can also try these if you have just woken up and are lying in your bed. You may be able to return to your dream.

Autosuggestion

You can repeat over and over a phrase similar to “I can see my dream,” or otherwise enforce in your mind that you can see a dreamscape.

Visualizing

You can visualize the scene as it would be if you could see it. You could take this as an opportunity to change the dreamscape by visualizing a different environment from the previous one in the dream. This can be made easier by spinning as you visualize.

Getting Objects Into Your Dream

Sometimes you would like something to eat or someone to talk with in a lucid dream. There are many ways to generate any object you choose in a lucid dream, but each method takes practice and persistence, as well as a good deal of confidence and concentration. Remember, it's your dream, anything you want to happen will happen.

In the dream world, your expectations are as good as facts. You have probably noticed how everything you think about instantly takes form in the dream (classic example: “Uh oh, I hope there's not a monster behind that corner” and you instantly see the monster coming at you). Use this to your advantage, and “entice” your brain to create what you want.

Here Are Some Methods To Help You Summon Objects:

You can grab for objects that are not within your field of vision. For example, you can say to yourself, “When I reach into my pocket there will be a box of mints in there.” and attempt to take a box of mints out of your pocket. There are variations of this, such as reaching behind you or reaching through a mirror in hopes of getting hold of what you want.

You could say aloud or in your head in a lucid dream, “When I turn around, so-and-so will be in front of me”, “When I walk through this mirror, I will see...”, or “In a few moments, so-and-so will walk through that door (or around that corner)”.

Stare at a point in empty space and think or say aloud that whatever object you want will materialize before your eyes. You will probably have to really concentrate for this one. Here's an example: “I am lucid in my backyard, and the scene is night-time, and pretty dark. I don't like the dark in my lucid dreams because I'm more likely to wake up, plus there could be a monster lurking at every corner. I look at the horizon, and concentrate on the sun rising out from below it. It doesn't happen at first, but I keep going and eventually I see a little light, and then the sun comes out. Strangely enough, the sun is white, but the surrounding sky is still black. I see a sky-blue ring around the white sun, and, in a quick motion, I point my hand to it and shout, ‘Blue!’. While this seems stupid now, my command actually got the blue light to spread around the sky, creating a daytime effect. Now I am off...”

Some people have also had success by closing their eyes and just imagining the object they desire in front of them, and when they open their eyes...

Remember to not doubt your control — as explained earlier in these free lessons, your dreams are affected by the placebo effect. If you believe you can attempt extremely hard things in a dream, and have them occur and not wake up, you will have an easier time performing that action!

Use Your Sleep To Accelerate Spiritual Growth, Solve Complex Problems, and Have Mind-Blowing Adventures You Choose

Andrew Holecek, a devout buddhist practitioner, is an undeniable expert in laying out complicated contemporary practices of eastern spirituality in simple words. Through his teachings on meditation, lucid dreaming and dream yoga, Andrew has delivered a body of wisdom that liberates people from all sorts of mental and physical limitations.

TOC - Free Lucid Dreaming Lessons

When learning how to lucid dream, you may have some frightening experiences, such as falling or shaking sensations. Although not dangerous, you should avoid the techniques that create these sensations if you would prefer not to experience them.

The most vivid dreams, and therefore the ones we remember the most, occur during REM sleep (though we dream in other stages too). One sleep cycle is roughly 90 minutes long. While in REM sleep mode we are in our most likely lucid dream center.

In this free chapter about what is lucid dreaming you learn that this is basically dreaming while being aware that you are dreaming. If you are in a lucid dream, you will usually have some power over your what you do inside your dream.

Becoming familiar with your dreams will increase your chances of becoming lucid in one. It is important to know about remembering dreams because there is no point in having these adventures without the recall. So, check these tips to evoke lucid dream recollection.

Greatly increase your chances of getting a lucid dream and discerning between your dreams and reality. In these free lessons you will learn how to wake yourself up inside your dreams and dream consciously. These lucid dream techniques are universal and all are included here.

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